Page 96 of Hijack the Seas: Tsunami

“Wondering if it’s safe to come out.”A ghostly cowboy hat just peeked over the opposite side of the hood when I whirled around at his voice, which had come from a new direction.“Is it the wrong time of month?Cause you’re a little scary right now.”

“Billy!”I screeched, but the hat was gone by the time I ran around the Jeep.But I spied it on the other side of the vehicle now, back where I’d just been.And visible through the pitted surface of the one window this thing still had, although why it did, I didn’t know, as it had no roof.Or much of anything else, which was why, this time, I went through the Jeep; only no, that wasn’t right.

Itorethrough it, leaving the doors open behind me and panting and staring around when I reached the other side because the damned hat was gone again!And ghosts didn’t leave footprints, so I was left with nothing.Except the slowly warming keys in my hand and another round of am-I-crazy-or-not playing through my head.

“Billy,” I said, only it came out as a sob that time.I fumbled for the necklace he’d once haunted, the one I still wore despite the fact that he wasn’t in it anymore, and even though I’d had to battle a crazed countess for it because I couldn’t let it go.And slumped back against the Jeep, utterly defeated and completely alone.

“You’re not alone,” the wind said, only it wasn’t the wind’s voice this time.And it wasn’t the brush of the wind against my hand, either, as fingers closed over mine.And it wasn’t the wind’s arms I threw myself into and almost went through the body I’d grabbed until it solidified abruptly to keep that from happening.

“Hey!Give a guy a little notice next time, okay?”Billy said because it was Billy.It was him!

Only I had no idea how.

“It’s a long story,” he said through duck lips because I guessed I’d said that last out loud.And because I’d grabbed his cheeks in my palms to keep him in place, so I could look at him.

He was so perfectly how I remembered that for a second, I was suspicious.But ghosts didn’t change appearance unless they wanted to, and I guessed he hadn’t wanted to.Everything was identical to how he lived in my memory: the ruffles on his cowboy shirt, the faded denim on his jeans, the hat that said he’d seen a frontier that he never had because Billy hadn’t gotten further West than the Mississippi, where he’d swindled some gamblers in a card game and met an early demise in a sack at the bottom of the river.

But he was here now, with the same hazel eyes I remembered so vividly, looking into mine with understanding but a bit of apprehension at whatever was on my face.

Because thiswasn’tpossible.

“It isn’t Samhain,” I whispered, which was the only time of year I was supposed to be able to see him.I saw dead people all the time, ghosts, zombies, god knew what else, especially here.But he wasgone, finally transitioning to whatever lay beyond this world and every other.

“Yeah, about that,” he said as I gripped his arms tightly enough to make him wince.“Cut that out!”

“How?”I demanded, my voice thick with all the things I couldn’t seem to say.

“It’s complicated—”

“How?” I shook him.

“When the gods tore Earth a new butthole, it weakened the fabric between here and...there,” he said as if searching for the right words.“Those of us who’d crossed over had a brief window before things shored up again to make a decision—come back or stay where we were.I came back.”

“Why?”I stared at him.“You were happy—”

“But you weren’t.I could watch things here after I left, kinda off and on, like a TV with bad reception.But enough to know that you didn’t return from Faerie.Everybody said you were dead, but I knew damned well you weren’t.Human souls don’t reincarnate like the fey, and if you’d suddenly popped up in the hereafter, I think I’d have known.So you were on some jaunt through time like usual and—”

He stopped because I was shaking him some more.“You werehappy!” I screamed.“You weresafe!You should havestayed there—”

“I was happy and will be again as soon as you fix this,” he said as if that was in any way likely!“But you need help, and I couldn’t just leave you, could I?It was always the Cassie and Billy show, remember?”

I stared at him, caught halfway between utter relief and creeping horror.Because if he was back, he could be killed, and I didn’t mean the usual way.Things were stalking this Earth that ate souls, consuming their essence in a finality that far transcended death and left me in a state of abject panic for Billy, the one person who I’d thought was okay.

Was I going to lose him, too?Was that my ultimate fate, to lose them all?Was this how my story ended, all alone with everyone I’d ever cared about dead and my world in ruins around me?

I felt dizzy suddenly.

“—and I knew you’d be back, that one day you’d pop back outta time and you’d need some help from someone who—” he stopped.“Is something wrong?”

I didn’t answer.I couldn’t.When I tried, I just started laughing and then found that I couldn’t stop until I was gasping for breath and only staying on my feet because Billy, a man who’d crossed the great divide and been safe, had come back...

Tothis.

“Cass.Cass.Listen to me,” but I wasn’t listening.I couldn’t seem to do that, either.I couldn’t seem to do anything butscrew up—

Billy finally lost patience and shook me back—hard.And kept on doing it until I was in jeopardy of whiplash and had somehow managed to gulp my way back to sobriety.Or whatever it was called when you’re no longer dealing with insipient hysteria.

I honestly wouldn’t know anymore.

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